The Sourceby

Raffi Kudlac

A THESIS SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OFTHE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF

B.SC. COMPUTER SCIENCE HONOURS

in

THE IRVING K. BARBER SCHOOL OF ARTS AND SCIENCES

(Computer Science)

THE UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA

(Okanagan)

April 2015

c© Raffi Kudlac, 2015

Table of Contents

Table of Contents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ii

List of Tables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv

List of Figures . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v

Chapter 1: Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

Chapter 2: Energy Today . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.1 Generators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32.2 Fossil Fuels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 42.3 Nuclear Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62.4 Hydro Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72.5 Wind Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92.6 Solar Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102.7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Chapter 3: The Source . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 143.1 High Scores . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163.2 Tutorial & About . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173.3 Screen Layout . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 17

Chapter 4: Evaluation Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194.1 The Test Subjects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204.2 The Testing Process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21

4.2.1 Data to be monitored by the system . . . . . . . . . . 214.3 Usability Stability Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 234.4 The Educational Questionnaire . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 264.5 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28

Chapter 5: Data Analysis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29

ii

TABLE OF CONTENTS

5.1 The Usability Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295.1.1 Usefulness . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 295.1.2 Difficulty . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 325.1.3 Playing Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34

5.2 Knowledge Test Results . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 375.2.1 Operation of a Power Plant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 385.2.2 Origins of Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 395.2.3 Pros and Cons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40

Chapter 6: Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43

Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45

iii

List of Tables

Table 2.1 Summary of pros and cons for fossil fuels and nuclearpower sources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12

Table 2.2 Summary of pros and cons for natural power sources . 13

Table 5.1 Improvement Average over population and power types 38

iv

List of Figures

Figure 2.1 Generator Mechanics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4Figure 2.2 Fossil Fuel Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5Figure 2.3 Nuclear Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7Figure 2.4 Hydro Cycle . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8Figure 2.5 Windmill Workings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9Figure 2.6 Solar Cell Workings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 11

Figure 3.1 System diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Figure 3.2 In game navigation panal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15Figure 3.3 System architecture . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16

Figure 5.1 Power Source Choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Figure 5.2 Advertisement Choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30Figure 5.3 Public Service Choices . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31Figure 5.4 Power demanded difficulty level . . . . . . . . . . . . 32Figure 5.5 Game pace rating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Figure 5.6 Price of items . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33Figure 5.7 Frustration Levels . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34Figure 5.8 Playing experience rating . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Figure 5.9 Learning level . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35Figure 5.10 Mis-Click Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Figure 5.11 Tutorial Experience . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 36Figure 5.12 Likely hood of self Learning . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37Figure 5.13 The workings of Power plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39Figure 5.14 Origins of power fuel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40Figure 5.15 Correct pros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41Figure 5.16 Correct cons . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41

v

Chapter 1

Introduction

In the world today nearly all people use generated power in some formor another. But not all people can say where their power comes from, orhow it gets to them. This work introduces a game called “The Source” thatis primarily targeted at high school students. In an attempt to broadenpeople’s understanding of the origins of their power, this tablet applicationaims to show the benefits and detriments of certain types of energy sources.The game is unique to its market area as there are hardly any educationaltablet applications on either the Apple or Google store at the time of pub-lication. “The Source” has another goal which is that it must provide apositive playing experience to its users. This goal is important to keep usersinterested in the game and to help them better absorb information.

“The Source” is an interactive energy simulation where the user is chargedwith the task of providing energy to a growing population. As time pro-gresses the population grows and demand for power increases. The usermust supply more and more power to meet the demand, but each type ofpower has different consequences. The energy types that are at the user’sdisposal are solar, wind, hydro, coal, oil, gas and nuclear. Users can chooseto build any of these power plants, but each type has consequences that oth-ers may not have. For example, if a user decided to build a power plant thatran off of coal, environmentalists would be displeased because the burning ofcoal introduces pollutants into the atmosphere. As well as considering theconsequences of their actions, the users must also consider what fuels eachpower plant and how long each power plant can be sustained. Fossil fuelsand nuclear power are not infinite; the user must find resources to fuel thesepower plants. Users can choose to invest in renewable resources such as so-lar, wind and hydro, but the problem the user encounters with these typesof resources is that they don’t output as much energy as fossil fuels. Theuser’s main objective is to survive for as long as possible and to beat theirprevious time. As the user plays the game he/she will encounter educationalanimations and text explaining how each power source operates.

In the following chapters we will discuss in detail the energy sources

1

Chapter 1. Introduction

involved in “The Source”, the system structure, the testing procedure usedto test the application, and the results that were discovered from testing.From the results it will be concluded if the “The Source” was successful in itsobjectives of teaching users about energy and providing a positive playingexperience.

2

Chapter 2

Energy Today

In our society, almost all of our energy that powers our homes and busi-nesses is created in the same way. It could be argued that Michael Faraday,the inventor of the concept of the generator, had the biggest effect on thedevelopment of our society. In the early 1800’s Faraday discovered that amagnet traveling through a coiled wire which could then be redirected towherever energy was needed. This concept is at the core of all our powergeneration. In the following sections we will cover a few of the differentkinds of power and the pros and cons of each. Power is something thateverone uses in their everyday lives and therefor it is important to haveeven a general understanding of how it works.

2.1 Generators

All generators operate in the same fashion, transferring kinetic energyinto electrical energy. Some generators perform this transfer by having astationary coil and moving a magnet through the coil as shown in Figure 2.1,while other generators have stationary magnets and move the coil throughthe magnetic field generated between two magnets. It does not matter whichmethod is used, the same rules of physics are applied and both ways achievethe result of a flowing current. The faster the movement of the coil or magnetthe more current will be generated. The more current that is generated themore power there is to use. Generators have a couple more componentsto them including, but not limited to, gas chambers and rotating pistons.These components are all just tools used to convert the potential energy ofthe power source into kinetic energy and finally into the desired electricalenergy. This concept is the heart of all major methods of power production.

3

2.2. Fossil Fuels

Figure 2.1: Generator Mechanics [Aut15d]

2.2 Fossil Fuels

All Fossil fuel plants operate in the same way; they burn a substance toheat water that is turned into steam and that steam is then fed to flow pasta turbine. The steam pushes the turbine which is connected to a generator.This motion feeds kinetic energy to the generator which then turns theenergy into electrical energy for people to use. This is shown in Figure 2.2which specifically shows the process of a coal power plant.

Fossil fuel plants have one specific difference from each other, which isin the substance that they burn and the different protocols and buildingserected to handle the substances. Other than this difference the processis the same for oil, gas, coal and even nuclear power plants. Once thesubstance has been burned, the heat is transferred into water. In order toobtain as much energy as possible, the water is kept under pressure makingit able to be heated to temperatures much higher then 100◦C. Once thewater is at the desired temperature, it is fed through a series of pipes fromwhich it enters another chamber. In this chamber, the water leaves thepipes at extraordinary speeds and is turned into steam instantaneously asthe pressure keeping the water in liquid state is released. The fast movingsteam pushes against a turbine causing it to move, and in turn, causing thecomponents in the generator to be moved, thus generating a current.

4

2.2. Fossil Fuels

Figure 2.2: Fossil Fuel Cycle [Aut15a]

In order to save water, the steam is collected and condensed back intowater to be used again. Plants are usually built around a water source aswater needs to be switched out at times to cool components of the plant.Since plants use water to function it is convientient to have a water sourceclose by. When water gets cycled out of the plant and back into the wa-ter source it is warm and can have negative effects on wildlife. Imagine ifsomeone cranked the thermostat in your house to 40◦C, how would you likeit?

Fossil fuel power plants generally produce large amounts of power andthe price of fossil fuels is generally cheap, but they have huge environmentalconsequences such as carbon dioxide being produced. Fossil fuel plants alsorun on a limited resource like coal and once the resource is depleted theywill be useless.

5

2.3. Nuclear Power

2.3 Nuclear Power

Nuclear power may be the most desired power source on the planet.Nuclear power is capable of producing tremendous amounts of power fordoing little work. All nuclear power plants today run off of fission, theprocess of breaking up atoms into smaller ones. The element that nuclearplants currently run off of is Uranium. Uranium has nice properties forbeing broken apart. One property being that large amounts of energy arereleased when fission occurs and this energy is given off in the form of heat.Just like fossil fuel power plants nuclear power plants operate by taking thisheat, heating water into steam, using the steam to turn a turbine and thenthe turbine turns a generator. This is shown in Figure 2.3. However theprocess of getting the heat is dramatically different. In the reactor of anuclear power plant there are Uranium rods, that fuel the plant. The rodsare bombarded with nuclei that breaks apart the Uranium in the rods whenit collides with the nuclei. Essentially it is like breaking when playing pool.The cue ball is the nuclei and the triangle of pool balls is the Uranium atom.Instead of sound being released when a collision occurs, heat gets released.The Uranium rods are surrounded by water and this water absorbs the heatfrom the fission reaction. Just like in fossil fuel power plants, the water iskept under pressure so that it can be heated to higher temperatures. Somedesigns vary but in a pressurized water reactor the water that is in contactwith the core can not come in contact with other parts of the plant. Thisis because this water is radio-active from its contact with the core. It is notturned into steam and is instead sent through a series of pipes away from thereactor. This water never leaves the pipes but is used to heat more water,safe water, that has outside contact with the pipes. From here the processis the same as with fossil fuel power plants.

Nuclear power plants have little waste compared to fossil fuel plants butthey do produce radio-active waste (left-overs from the fission reaction).This radio active waste can last for hundreds of years and there is no wayto dispose of it other then to leave it on its own. Also It takes energy tomine the Uranium, refine it and transport it to the plant. This process canbe lengthy and can leave the earth scared with dig sites. Like fossil fuels,Uranium is a resource found in the Earth’s crust and there is a finite amountof it. There is far more uranium than all the fossil fuels combined and weare using it up at a slower rate but one day we will run out and sciencewill have to find a new kind of power source for fission. Even with all thesedraw backs nuclear power is one of the most power abundant method forcreating energy. Nuclear plants can power huge populations of people and

6

2.4. Hydro Power

Figure 2.3: Nuclear Cycle [Aut15b]

even though nuclear waste is produced, it is tiny compared to the waste ofthe other fossile fuels.

2.4 Hydro Power

Hydro power, arguably, can be the cleanest source of power because ithas almost no environmental effects once the plant is built. Like fossil fuelsand nuclear power plants, hydro power plants work by turning a turbinethat is connected to a generator to produce power. The difference betweenthe two previously mentioned plants and hydro plants is that hydro plants,instead of using steam to push turbines, use running water from rivers orlakes. Figure 2.4 shows this process.

The rule of thumb for hydro power is that the faster the water flows themore power you can generate. This creates a desire for big dams. The ideais that you dam a river causing the area above the dam to flood and thisflood water is held at bay by the dam. Within the dam there is a generatorand turbines and the turbines are located in a shaft where water will flow.Once the shafts have been opened, the water runs through the turbines usinggravity and the water pressure from the lake. The bigger the dam is, thebigger the lake created will be. The more water pressure there will be, thefaster the water will flow, and the more power will be generated. Dams do

7

2.4. Hydro Power

not burn any kind of resource for fuel so there are no harmful environmentalemissions once the dam is running. Dams, unlike other forms of naturalpower are capable of producing large amounts of power and can run 24hours a day, 7 days a week. One downside of dams is that their constructionusually requires large areas of land to be destroyed. This destruction wipesout any wildlife living there at the time and causes environmental shifts’ tonatural eco-systems.

There are some rare cases, such as Niagara Falls, where waterfalls canbe used to generate power. This results in power being able to be generatedwithout having to destroy large areas of land. Finding a big enough waterfallthat can generate enough power near a populated area is rare so this is notthe usual option when creating a hydro-electric dam.

Figure 2.4: Hydro Cycle [Aut15f]

8

2.5. Wind Power

2.5 Wind Power

Wind power has maybe the least environmental impact out of all of thepower sources. Opperating from wind currents to rotate giant blades thatare connected by a series of levers and gears to the generator. Figure 2.5shows this process. The current is then fed down the shaft of the wind-mill and off to whereever needed. Once constructed, windmills essentiallyhave no maintenance cost and are practically self-sustaining except for whenbreakdowns occur and maintenance is performed.

Although windmills have minimal environmental effects, they have fivenoticeable drawbacks. The first drawback is that they produce tiny amountsof power compared to fossile fuels. The second drawback is that that in orderto be effective windmills must be build it groups called wind farm and thesetake up large amounts of space compared to a single fossil fueled powerplant. Third, windmills have been known to be a cause of death to birds.Fourth, humans that live around windmills are generally displeased with theappearance, noise and frequent shadows that they create. Finally, windmillsare also costly to build and can only be placed in windy locations to makethem worth building.

Figure 2.5: Windmill Workings [Aut15c]

9

2.6. Solar Power

2.6 Solar Power

Solar power is the one power source that works in a completely differentfashion from all of the others. When most objects are struck with raysof light, they absorb the incoming rays and convert this energy into heat.Solar panels are made from a special substance, primarily silicon. Whenthis substance is struck with light it tends to react differently than mostobjects. When the electrons in solar panels are struck with light, theybecome excited and they raise an energy level. When enough electrons areat high enough energy levels they become loose and are able to move around.Electrons separate to the n (negative) type silicon and the protons remainin the p (positive) type silicon. In between the two types is a junction. Thispolarization of the two sides makes the loose electrons in the negative partof the panel able to move around. This motion forms a current in the celland then the current can be redirected to where ever it is needed. Figure2.6 shows this process.

Solar panels have little to no maintenance cost and only require attentionif they break down. They fit nicely on rooftops, and they have hardly anyenvironmental impacts. Unfortunately, solar panels are the least efficientform of generating power, transforming only about 20% of the sunlight thathits them into usable electricity. In order to generate any significant amountof usable power, say enough to power amoderately sized population, farmsof solar panels need to be built. This takes up huge amounts of space, fargreater than any one fossil fueled power plant. With the increase of solarpanals the cost also rises. Another drawback of solar panels is that they canonly function during the day while the sun is up, which means that anothersource of power is required for night time activities.

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2.7. Summary

Figure 2.6: Solar Cell Workings [Aut15e]

2.7 Summary

In summary each power source has its own advantages and disadvan-tages. Fossil fuels and nuclear power tend to be more powerful, capable ofsustaining large populations but run the side effect of pollution the environ-ment. While nature power produce clean energy but take up more spaceand are less powerful. Below in Tables 2.1 and 2.2 there is a comparison ofthe different energy sources mentioned in the previous sections.

11

2.7. Summary

Table 2.1: Summary of pros and cons for fossil fuels and nuclear powersources

Pros Cons

Fossil Fuels

* Produces large amountsof power

* Fuel is cheap to obtain

* Can be built close to cities

* Fuel is finite

* Pollutes the environment

* Disrupts marine wildlife

Nuclear

* Produces large amountsof power

* Fuel is abundant

* Produces lower wastethan fossil fuels

* Produces radio activewaste

* Disrupts marine wildlife

* Fuel is finite

12

2.7. Summary

Table 2.2: Summary of pros and cons for natural power sourcesPros Cons

Wind

* Fuel source is infinite

* Produces clean energy

* Minimal environmentaleffects

* Low maintenance cost

* People don’t like livingnear windmills

* Produces small amountsof power

* Must be build in groupsto be effective

* must be built in windylocations

Solar

* Fuel source is infinite

* Produces clean energy

* No Environmental effects

* low maintenance cost

* Integrates well in cities

* Weakest power sourceat creating power

* Must be built in groupsto be effective

* Can only work duringthe day

* Costly to build

Hydro

* Fuel source is infinite

* Produces clean energyonce built

* Can produce largeamounts of energy

* Can run all day and night

* Huge environmentalcost to build

* Dams can be costlyto build

* Have to be built bywater

13

Chapter 3

The Source

“The Source” is a strategy game that relies heavily on the user’s ca-pabiliy to think ahead. Users are constantly playing against the clock todetermine how long can they last for with the current amount of resourcesthat they have, and what should their next move be. As mentioned before,“The Source” is a energy simulator where users have to supply power toa population of people. As time progresses the population grows and thedemand for power grows with it. As the demand increases it becomes harderfor the user to supply the power needed to feed the population.

The design of the system, as illustrated in Figure 3.1, is straightforward.The user interacts with the system by purchasing power plants. This isdone on a designated screen when there is land for the user to build on.If the user selects a fossil fueled or nuclear power plant then he/she mustprovide resources for the plant to use. The user can obtain fossil fuels oruranium by mining for them on the screen designated to represent the landthat is currently available for the user to excavate. Once resources havebeen obtained and a power plant is built, energy can then be created andsupplied to the population. After supplying power the population pays theuser and this earned money can then be spent to obtain more power sourcesto meet the rising demand. Users can navigate through the game using thenavigation panel in the bottom left of the screen. An example is shown in3.2. Using this panel, that exists on every screen, the user can get to almostany other screen.

Another option that the user has is that he/she can purchase advertise-ments or public services to help him/her flourish in the simulation. Forexample, a user could purchase an advertisement that educates the popu-lation to not waste power. This advertisement would reduce the usage ofpower and allow the user to more easily meet the demand. Users can alsobuy public services. An example of a public service would be a geologistthat would survey the land and tell the user where to mine for a specificresource. Both public services and advertisements influence groups withinthe game, such as environmentalists and public opinion.

14

Chapter 3. The Source

User’s choices in the game affect groups as well, for example if a userinvested in coal fueled power plants then the environmentalist group wouldbe displeased. Groups provide small perks or punishments to the user,usually in the form of grants or fines, which are dependent on the user’splay style and choices within the simulation.

Figure 3.1:

Figure 3.2:

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3.1. High Scores

3.1 High Scores

Each time the user plays the game and their session ends he/she is pre-sented with their score that they earned. The score is built from how longthe user was able to stay in the game. The longer the user survives for, thebetter their score will be. If there is a tie in time then the measurementchanges to number of blackouts. Who ever has the least amount of blackoutswins. In rare cases if there is still a tie then the newer score is placed abovethe older one. If the score is within the top five scores ever played on theircurrent device then the score is saved to compete against it next time. Thetop five scores are saved on a local file so every device that contains a copyof “The Source” will have its own high scores file.

Every time the user plays the game and their session ends he/she willhave the opportunity to send their scores to the parse database to be com-pared with other peoples scores. Before sharing their score the user sees howhe/she did compared to the current scores on the database. If the user likeshis/her placement he/she can chose to send their scores to the database,saving their score for others to see. Figure 3.3 shows this interaction. Eventhough users can see how well they placed in the world they can only seethe top twenty scores in the world. This is the only way in the game thatthe user can interact with the parse database.

Figure 3.3:

16

3.2. Tutorial & About

3.2 Tutorial & About

From the main page the user has three options, to play the game, to seethe tutorial, and to visit the about page. The tutorial is currently a slideshow of the available screens in the game that explains the purpose of eachscreen, how the user is to interact with it, and the user’s overall task. Theuser can also visit the about page where credit is given to the artists of thegame since the coding and art work were done by different people.

3.3 Screen Layout

“The Source” is composed of 8 different screens. The first five mentionedbelow are know as the five core screens. You can get to any of these screensfrom any other screen in the game. The access to these screen is in thenavigation panel discussed earlier.

The Business Screen (one of the five core screens):In this screen the user is able to purchase advertisements and pubic

services to help him/her progress through the simulation. Here theuser is also able to see their progress throughout the game. The userwill be able to see data like money and energy made over time.

The City Screen (one of the five core screens):Here the user is able to see how the population is doing, the amount

of power currently demanded, and the amount supplied. This screen’spurpose is to display information.

The Power Plant Screen (one of the five core screens):This screen, possibly the most educational screen, shows the work-

ings of each type of energy and the inner workings of a generator.As well as seeing this information this screen allows the user to seespecifics on the current power plants that he/she has built. Specificsinclude information such as amount of power produced, cost to main-tain, resources required to maintain, and more.

The Land Screen (one of the five core screens):From this screen the user can build power plants that run off of

fossil fuels and uranium. The user will have some designated land tostart but he/she also has the option to buy more land to build on ifthe starting land is all used up.

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3.3. Screen Layout

The Resource Screen (one of the five core screens):The purpose of this screen is to act like a map for the resources at

the user’s disposal. From this screen the user can see all the resourcesthat will be needed and the user can get at the three resource screensthat will allow the user to extract the resources.

The Hydro Screen:From here the user can view numerous rivers that could be dammed

in order to generate power. Once a river is dammed it will be shownon the screen. Rivers can only be dammed once.

Solar/wind Power Screen:This screen shows land in the form of a grid that the user has at

his/her disposal to build windmills or solar panels on. Building has acost, but once something is built it can be dismantled to open the landto have something else built.

The Fossil Fuels Screen:Here the land that the user can mine will be shown. This screen

will be one large grid that will hold all the fossil fuels and uranium.The user can mine a section by selecting it and he or she will havea chance of discovering any combination of the four resources. Theresources discovered will go towards fueling the built power plants.Once a section is mined it can not be mined again.

The Static Screen:The static screen is not really a screen at all, but it is a combination

of static images that remain on top of all other screens for the entireduration of the game. This screen serves as the means of navigationbetween the five core screens, and also displays information like moneyand time.

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Chapter 4

Evaluation Plan

The power-related app community in the Google Play Store and theApple app store is practically nonexistent and contains only a handfulof applications. The apps that were the most similar to “The Source”in terms of having the user build his or her own power plants were citysimulations such as “City Island 2” [Soc15], “Moon Base”[Bec15] and“Megapolis”[Ltd15]. In these apps there was no educational view asto how the power was generated, but often apps like the ones listedcovered pros and cons of the types of power that were available. Froman educational direction there were very few apps that explained howpower plants worked, and the ones that did explain only focused onone type of power. The types of power usually covered by these typesof apps were nuclear and solar as those are the more interesting of allthe types. As of a searches performed prior to March 2nd 2015, therewere no apps in either store that directly focused on energy as a wholeand providing an understanding to the user as to how multiple powersources work.

Not surprisingly, the Internet had a more plentiful market of ed-ucational energy-based games. These games covered multiple energysources and gave detailed descriptions, animations, and data on howthese power sources operate. A good example of such a game would be“Save the World”[Won15]. Although not all games have a goal of beingeducational, there were a few like “Save the World”[Won15] and “Ener-gyville” [Che15] that clearly had educational objectives. In comparisonto all of the other games that were reviewed, the overall goals of thesegames were the same as those of The Source, although they differed inhow the user accomplishes tasks, in design, and in the variety of powerplants that were covered.

In summary, there are application in the Google Play and AppleApp store that have covered energy and contain education facts aboutpower sources. There are application on the web that are directly madefor the purpose of educating users on many different kinds of power

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4.1. The Test Subjects

and how they operate. All of these applications understand the criticalimportance of a positive playing experience and are designed with thatin mind. What “The Source” has done differntly is that is has targeteda section of the market that has been untouched in an educationalaspect. “The Source” differs from other apps in the variety of powersources that are covered, its educational focus, and unique design. Assuch “The Source” will only be sucessful if it teaches its targeted users,app users about the different kinds of power that it covers and if itprovides a pleasant playing experience.

In order for The Source to be successful it must be evaluated intwo ways. The first way “The Source” must be evaluated is in terms ofusability, it must therefore meet the following two criteria. The applica-tion must be engaging to the user and provide an overall pleasant play-ing experience. The reason “The Source” must be evaluated in terms ofusability is because users will only willingly dedicate his or her time togames if the game is user friednly. The second way “The Source” mustbe evaluated is in educational terms. The application must help theuser to comprehend general facts about where power comes from andhow power is generated. The reason “The Source” must be evaluatedin educational terms is that educating its users about energy is one ofits core purposes. It is important to know if the “The Source” wassuccessful or not. If “The Source” is successful in these two ways thenit will also be successful in being different from all other content in itsmarket. In order to discover if the game is successful in meeting thesecriteria, it will be tested on a group of test subjects discussed below.

4.1 The Test Subjects

The Source is primarily targeted at high school students, but dueto time constraints and a lack of high school students the game will betested on about 20 university students. More test subjects would havebeen prefered but due to time and resource constraints this is whatcould be managed. More would have been prefered Students that aretested will not have played the game before but way have played thetutorial. Each student will fill out two questionnaires, one dedicatedto evaluating the numeric stability of the game and one dedicated todiscovering if the users have learned anything while playing the game.If both questionnaires return with significant results then it will be

20

4.2. The Testing Process

indicative of the participants having had an enjoyable and educationalexperience.

4.2 The Testing Process

The whole testing period should last no longer than an hour. Eachquestionnaire will be taken online using google forms. Once a user hascompleted the first questionnaire, the pre knowledge test, which shouldtake about 5 - 10 minutes he/she will be presented with the applicationon a personal tablet. The first thing the user will be instructed to dowill to be to go through the tutorial which should take 5 - 10 minutes.After completion, the user will play the game for the first time. Thiswill be a trial run for the user to get used to the mechanics of the systemand for them explore what can be done in the app. The instructor (me)will be present to answer questions by the user. The only questions thatcan not be answered are those on the topic of how the energy sourceoperates. The user can go through as many “trial” runs as he/shewants (at least one though) but the final time should be a real attemptat trying to survive as long as possible in the game. Since the user canrepeat this as many times as he/she wants it’s a little hard to estimatethe time but the trial period should roughly be another 5 - 10 minutes,possibly less. The final time should be about 15 - 20 minutes. If itlasts past 30 minutes the trial will be cut off. At any time the user canpause the game to use the restroom or whatnot. This time combinedwith the users trial time will be enough to determine if the user haslearnt anything. Once the user has finished playing a game he/she willcomplete a questionnaire. This should take another 15 - 20 minutes intheory coming up to total sum of roughly an hour.

4.2.1 Data to be monitored by the system

Every five years the system will automatically record the followinginformation and a random number ID will be generated for each timethe game is played (If the user presses the reset button, a new ID isgenerated). In order to remove the test runs from the actual trial. TheInternet connection will be turned off. When the user is ready to playfor real, the connection will be turned on allowing the data to be sentto parse. Information that the system will record are

21

4.2. The Testing Process

− current amount of money

− how many times each advertisement was activated

− how many times each public service was activated

− how many times was the fast forward button used

− number of fossil fueled power plants built

− number of windmill and solar panels built

− number of dams built

− number of occurred blackouts

− number of tiles mined

− amount of each resource the user currently has

− power demanded and supplied

− the current year

Gathering this data will help reveal potential flaws. For example,the user should not have $1000 five minutes into the game because thenthe game would pose no challenge as the user could purchase anything.

Knowing how which ads and public services are used will reveal anynumerical flaws with each perk. Flaws could include the perk costingto much or not being powerful enough to use, making the perk useless.

Knowing how many times the fast forward button is used will helpgive a sense if the user thinks the game pace is too slow. Generallya comfortable pace helps a game be enjoyable. This question is alsoreflected in the questionnaire to help get an understanding of the user’sthoughts

Similar to the ads and public services, knowing how often eachpower source is used will help reveal any flaws that may exist. Powersources that are not build may not be strong enough or may be tooexpensive. If only a few power sources are built then those few couldbe too powerful.

Knowing how many blackouts have occurred in each time intervalis important. In theory few blackouts should happen in the beginningand more should occur near then end when resources are fewer and

22

4.3. Usability Stability Questionnaire

demand has increased. If the data shows that multiple blackouts arefrequently occurring early on then this means that it is too hard tokeep up with the demand.

Knowing how much power the user is supplying, how much poweris demanded, how many tiles have been mined and knowing how muchof each resource the user currently has reveals no flaws but having theinformation available is good. This information is recorded just in case.

Keeping track of the year is just a reference to know when eventsare happening in the game and is required by other mentioned datapoints.

4.3 Usability Stability Questionnaire

The questionnaire’s purpose is to discover the user’s tactics duringthe game, for example, why he or she made certain choices. Knowingthis information will reveal numerical flaws in the game, such as if apower source is too strong or if an aid is too weak. This informationis important to know because it reveals imbalances in the game thatwould need to be fixed. The questionnaire will be broken up into thesethree criteria usefulness, difficulty of the game and user experienc.

In order to access usefulness of certain items. The user willanswer the following

1. Why did you not build some of the power plants available? (seeadministrator)

2. Why did you not purchase some of the advertisements? (see ad-ministrator for specifics)

3. Why did you not purchase some of the public services? (see ad-ministrator for specifics)

4. Were there any pieces of information that were not displayed thatshould have been displayed

23

4.3. Usability Stability Questionnaire

In order to access the level of difficulty of the game he/shewill answer the following

5. How challenging was it to keep up with the power demanded?

Very Easy Easy Neutral Difficult Very Difficult

1 2 3 4 5

6. Please rate how you felt the pace of the game was. “I felt thegame was..”

Too Slow A Little Slow Just Right A little Fast Too Fast

1 2 3 4 5

This is question is in this section because the users interpretationof the pase of a game can greatly influence if the game is difficulyor not. To quick pase games users must work to keep up withevents that are progressing. The faster the game, the more infor-mation the user must process in a shorter mount of time. Thismakes games harder.

7. (a) Indicate to what extent you agree with the following state-ment: “I found some items were too expensive or too cheap,thus, making the game too easy or too hard to play.”

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

1 2 3 4 5

(b) Please list the items you found to be too expensive (if any):

(c) Please list the items you found to be too cheap (if any):

In order to access the users playing experience he/shewill answer the following

8. Choose the statement that best applies to youa) I never got frustratedb) I got frustrated a littlec) I got frustrated a lotd) I was frustrated all the time

24

4.3. Usability Stability Questionnaire

9. What would you rate your playing experience?

Very Poor Poor Neutral Good Very Good

1 2 3 4 5

10. To what extent would you agree with the following statement: “Ilearned about energy from playing this game.”

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

1 2 3 4 5

11. Please state the frequency to which you mis-clicked or got lostlooking for specific content

Never Rarely Sometimes Always

1 2 3 4

This is in this section becuase although mis-clicking and poten-tially getting lost in the game do make the game harder, thosewould be unintended difficulties that the user would face. There-for the recording of the users mis-clicks are in the playing experi-ence section.

25

4.4. The Educational Questionnaire

12. Please state how much you agree with the following statement.“After going through the tutorial. I felt that I understood themajor aspects and mechanics of the game”

Strongly Disagree Disagree Neutral Agree Strongly Agree

1 2 3 4 5

13. After playing the game how likely is it that you would go researchpower on your own time?

Definetly Not Probably Not Maybe Probably Definetly

1 2 3 4 5

14. Additional Comments

4.4 The Educational Questionnaire

This questionnaire’s purpose is to discover if the user learned any-thing while playing the game. In theory the people who know nothingshould learn a lot, the people who know a little should only learn alittle as the game only covers power at a general level, and the peoplewho are knowledgeable should learn almost nothing. In order to knowif a user has learned anything he/she will be required to complete ashort knowledge test before and after completion of the game. Thisway the pre and post answers will be compared to discover if the userhas learned anything.

Specific things that this user group will have to do is to give a briefunderstanding of each kind of power, for example:

Hydro

1. What is source of energy for a hydro-electric dam?

(a) water

(b) tidal-waves

(c) chemical reaction with water

(d) rain

26

4.4. The Educational Questionnaire

2. Explain how a hydro-electric damn uses the energy source to cre-ate power.

(a) Water powered by gravity turns a turbine which in turn pow-ers the generator which makes a current

(b) Water is pumped past a turbine, causing it to rotate, whichin turn powers the generator which makes a current

(c) Chemical reactions inside the turbine create a pushing forcecause the dam to rotate which in turn powers the generatorwhich creates a current.

(d) The force of the tides cause water to move past the turbinecausing it to rotate. This powers the generator which createsa current

3. Which of the following would you consider an advantage for ahydro electric dam? Check all that apply.

(a) Cheap to build

(b) Once built, can produce clean power

(c) Can run all the time. (24/7)

(d) Small environmental impact

(e) Other, please specify

4. Which of the following would you consider a disadvantage for ahydro electric dam? Check all that apply.

(a) Destroys large amounts of land

(b) Requires a large amount of money to build

(c) Requires water to operate

(d) Water is wated by the dam

(e) Other, please specify

These same four questions will be repeated for each kind of power(with different multiple choice questions) and answers to each are withinthe game. A score will be generated for their answers before and afterplaying and by comparing the answers we will be able to see if the userhas learned anything.

27

4.5. Conclusion

4.5 Conclusion

With all of these questions answered it can be discovered if “TheSource” was successful in meeting the criteria of numeric stability andusability. More specifically, it will be determined if The Source is suc-cessful at being a positive playing experience and teaching users generalfacts about where power comes from and how power is generated.

28

Chapter 5

Data Analysis

Over the course of a week and a half, 17 university students par-ticipated in testing the system using the method described in the lastchapter. The original estimates of the timing of the testing were ac-curate. The amount of time taken to learn the game and the level ofenjoyment did vary between people so the testing periods lasted fromabout 50 minutes to an hour and a half. In the following sections theresults of the tests will be discussed and a conclusion will be reachedas to whether or not “The Source” was educational and successful inbeing a positive playing experience.

5.1 The Usability Results

As mentioned in the previous chapter, this questionnaire’s purposewas to allow the user to express his or her thoughts, ideas, experiencesand opinions on playing the game. Three different areas that weredirectly focused were the usefulness of items in the game, the difficultyof the game, and the users’ playing experiences. The data in all chartsand graphs are averaged over users.

5.1.1 Usefulness

The first thing that required feedback was the usefulness of itemsin the game. The public services, power sources, and advertisementsin the game allow for many different tactics and it is important toknow users’ decisions concerning all three of these items. The chartsin Figures 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3 show the users’ responses when asked whythey did not purchase elements from a section.

29

5.1. The Usability Results

Figure 5.1: Power Source Choices

Figure 5.2: Advertisement Choices

30

5.1. The Usability Results

Figure 5.3: Public Service Choices

In all three charts, the main reason why users didn’t purchase itemswas because of the cost. Users evaluated the cost of the items anddeemed them not worthy of the time and money required. Having thismany people come to this conclusion shows that users are experiencingtoo much financial pressure. This pressure is limiting the users choicesin the game, making it more linear. Users should have many optionsto chose from and while price should be a factor in their decision itshould not be an overly controlling factor.

Nearly 30% of people came to the conclusion that advertisementswere an unnecessary investment. This is nearly a third of the popula-tion, which suggests that the perks that groups give should be recon-sidered to give more positive advantages to the user, rather than justpreventing disadvantages. 23.7% of people came to the same conclu-sion about public services; that public services posed no real advantage.However, the data monitored by the system shows that the few peoplewho managed to invest in them were able to thrive for a while off of theperks provided by the public services. While it can be said that somepeople saw public services as a waste, some people saw an opportunity,and hence public services cannot be claimed as positive or negative forcertain with so many participants being scared off by the price.

18% of participants said that natural power was a better investmentthan other power types, and although this number is influence by theprice of the other power sources, it does suggest the possibility that

31

5.1. The Usability Results

maybe natural power is too strong. Natural power was meant to helpthe user get started in the early stages of the game and then fall offlater but many users developed the strategy of investing into naturalpower for as long as possible.

5.1.2 Difficulty

Another area that needed investigating was the difficulty that theuser experienced while playing the game. It was of interest to know ifthe user had a too easy or too difficult of a time playing. The gameshould not be so simple as to be mindless, but it should not be toodifficult as to make the user give up. This difficulty was evaluated inthree different questions, how difficult the user found it to keep up withdemand, how the user thought the pace of the game was, and if theuser found some items to be too expensive or too cheap. The resultsof each question are shown in figures 5.4, 5.5 and 5.6.

Figure 5.4: Power Demand Difficulty Level

As can be seen in figure 5.4 the majority of the pariticipants hada difficult time keeping up with the power demanded and this is to beexpected, however, the game is intended for a younger audience. Ifuniversity students had a difficult time keeping up, it is reasonable tobelieve that high school students should have even more of a challenge.This issue could be resolved by lowering the cost of the items that theusers had already believed were too expensive.

Figure 5.5 shows that a majority of participants were able to copewith the pace of the game. This data shows that the pace of the gameis probably not a big factor in the difficulty of the game.

32

5.1. The Usability Results

Figure 5.5: Game Pace Rating

Figure 5.6: Expensive/inexpensive items

In figure 5.6 the data indicates that nearly every participant foundthat the cost of items could use revising. In follow up questions theusers said that almost all of the items and all of the non-natural powersources cost too much. This additional cost added a great deal offinancial difficulty to the game. Not being able to purchase powerplants is the main way that the game should create its difficulty butit can not be the only way. If purchasing power plants was the onlyobstacle then the user would only have to face this one problem everytime he or she played. Instead the user should be facing a price obstacleas well as many other smaller obstacles created by the choices the usermakes while playing. From the users’ responses it can be determinedthat financial difficulty needs to be decreased and replaced in othersections of the game. This modification will create a more dynamicgame every time the user plays, which will in turn make the gamemore interesting.

33

5.1. The Usability Results

5.1.3 Playing Experience

The previous two sections were dedicated to discovering potentialflaws that lay within the framework of the system, but one of thegame’s two core goals, which is to provide a positive playing experienceto the user, must also be investigated. To see if “The Source” wassuccessful the users were asked to comment on their frustration, playingexperience, learning, mis-clicks, rate and tutorial experience. Out ofcuriosity, the user was also asked if he or she was motivated to researchpower on his/her own time. The results of these questions are belowin figures 5.7, 5.8, 5.9, 5.10, 5.11 and 5.12.

Figure 5.7: Frustration Levels

Clearly, figure 5.7 shows that the majority of the users fell withinthe acceptable range of experiencing little or no frustration. The gameis fairly large and has multiple screens for dedicated tasks, and assuch it was expected for some participants to experience high levelsof frustration, especially if they rushed through the lengthy tutorial.Unfortunately, the users did not elaborate on their frustration so thereare no specifically known reasons as to what exactly was causing theusers to be frustrated.

34

5.1. The Usability Results

Figure 5.8: Playing Experience Rating

From figure 5.8 it can be seen that over 80% of the participantshad a positive experience playing, which is important to maintain userinterest and attract new users.

Figure 5.9: Learning Level

Figure 5.9 shows that over 75 % of participants felt that they learnedsomething about energy while playing this game. This data is an excel-lent indication of success in the other core goal of “The Source”, whichis educating the user about energy. This data is further explored in thefollowing section.

35

5.1. The Usability Results

Figure 5.10: Mis-Click Rate

From the data in figure 5.10, which is directly related to the user’sfrustration level, it is expected to see a relation between user mis-clicksand user frustration. However this data is not indicative of a clear con-nection. This data shows that the game has other frustrating aspects,which other data indicates may possibly be the financial difficulty thatmost people experienced.

Figure 5.11: Tutorial Experience

It can be seen in figure 5.11 that the tutorial was successful in itstask of informing the user of his/her objectives and the mechanics of thegame. After completing the tutorial, over 90% of participants felt readyto take on the game. Although this percentage is excellent, almost allof the participants mentioned that the tutorial was too long and thatthey tried unsuccessfully to use the tutorial as if it were interactive,which it was not. Although the tutorial performed its task for thisstudy, it is unlikely that it would be effective in the real world as theattention span of users would not be long enough.

36

5.2. Knowledge Test Results

Figure 5.12: Likelihood Of Self Research

The other core goal of “The Source” is to educate the user on howthe main sources of energy function, but there is too much informationand detail to fully explain the workings of each power source completelyin the game. “The Source” merely opens the door and gives user a tasteas to what is out there, and hopefully inspires people to research a littlemore into power on their own time. Figure 5.12 shows that 65% ofparticipants showed potential in researching power on their own time.

All of the data collected from the playing experience section of theusability study indicates that the users had positive playing experiencesand the game was user friendly. This positive outcome means that “TheSource” has successfully met its usability goals. In fact, the majorityof the data collected for each question in this section has a positiveoutcome.

5.2 Knowledge Test Results

The purpose of the knowledge test was to discover if the user hadlearned anything during the game. As mentioned before a pre and post-test method was used to compare users’ knowledge before and afterplaying “The Source”. The game can claim to be successful if morepeople get the right answer in the post test than in the pre test. Table5.1 shows an improvement averaged over people and power types. Itshows that in all categories there was an average increase in knowledgeafter the pre-test. This data suggests that on a whole “The Source”was successful in its goal of educating its users. The knowledge test willbe discussed further in three parts. First, the operation section whichcovers how power plants operate. Second, the origins of resources, and

37

5.2. Knowledge Test Results

third, the pros/cons section, which covers the pros and cons of eachpower source. These three pieces are broken up because the informationinvolved was presented to the users in two different ways.

Table 5.1: Improvement Average over population and power typesImprovement average over

people and power types (%)

Workings of Power Source 24.3

Origins of Power 57.7

Pros 6

Cons 11.6

5.2.1 Operation of a Power Plant

In both the pre and post-tests users were asked about the generalidea of how each kind of power opperates and the idea behind moderngenerators. Within the game lies a screen with small (10-20 second)animations about how each type of power operates. Users are almostguaranteed to see each animation as they are instructed to explore thegame on their first attempt at playing. Each animation holds the an-swer to the respective question asked in the questionnaire. The resultsof the question are shown in figure 5.13. The graph shows that therewas an increase in knowledge in almost all areas except nuclear and coalpower. Knowledge in nuclear power remained the same, which suggeststhat people didn’t visit the screen where the nuclear power knowledgewas presented. This relationship agrees with what a few users men-tioned, that the game forced the user to care about coal more thanthe other non-natural power sources, because the user starts off with acoal power plant. In future work the user could start off with a randompower source so they are forced to see all knowledge screens. Figure 5.13also shows that one person did worse after playing the game when askedabout the workings of coal power plants. Reasons why this decreaseoccurred are unknown and the decrease should not have happened fora number of reasons. First, since users start with a coal power plantthey are almost guaranteed to visit the screen that presents them withthe knowledge of how coal power plants operate. The information isnot hidden or avoidable, if the user visited this screen he or she wouldhave had to have seen it. Secondly, users showed an improvement in

38

5.2. Knowledge Test Results

both gas and oil power plants which work the same way as coal powerplants. If the user knows how one operates he or she knows how theother three operate as well. Even with this one anomaly, looking atthe data as a whole it is clear that in all of the other categories ofpower there was an increase of correct answers after playing the game.This is supported by the first value in Figure 5.1, stating that 11% ofusers improved in this category. This increase demonstrates that “TheSource” is capable of teaching users about energy.

Figure 5.13: Correct answers to the workings of a power type

5.2.2 Origins of Power

In this section of the questionnaire users were asked where the fuelsources of each type of power came from. In these questions solar powerwas ignored due to its simplicity. In the case of wind and hydro thequestions focussed more on what kinds of moving air and water fueledthe power types. An example of a “type” of air would be “rising airdue to heat and oceans”. In the case of nuclear power the users wereasked what fuels nuclear power and how the fuel is obtained. Theanswers to these questions were never directly displayed to the userbut instead they have to perform the actions themselves. For example,coal is mined from the earth and in the game in order to obtain coal

39

5.2. Knowledge Test Results

and other fossil fuels, users had to mine sections of land. In the case ofnatural power the answers were shown in the animated videos becauseyou can not create or purchase sunlight, water, or moving air. Theresults of this question are shown in figure 5.14. The graph shows thatat least one person showed improvement in all aspects of power. Thisspecific improvement, as well as the second value in Figure 5.1, statingthat on an average 13.4% of users improved in this category shows thatusers knowledge increased in this area.

Figure 5.14: Correct answers to origins of power plant fuel

5.2.3 Pros and Cons

In this section of the questionnaire users were asked to select anumber of statements that they thought were advantages and disad-vantages to the power source that the question was referring to. Theanswers to each question were located in the section of the game wherethe user would purchase a power source. This way the user could seethe pros and cons of each power type before making a purchase. Theresults of the questionnaire are shown in figures 5.15 and 5.16. Thegraphs are not nearly as straight foward as the others covered in theprevious two sections. Here each graph has a few inexplicable features.The pros show that no pros were learned in 3 out of the 7 types ofpower, and some people for some reason did worse on 2 of the 7 powertypes. Even though the graph shows that at least two people improvedon the remaining types of power, the negative data is too substantial

40

5.2. Knowledge Test Results

to ignore. The cons graph is only marginally better than the pros. In2 of the 7 types of power no progress was shown, and people actuallydid worse when asked to list the cons of oil power plants. Even thoughFigure 5.1 shows a positive average learning value for both pros andcons the data overall is too weak to show an increase in knowledge.

Figure 5.15: Correct answers to pros of a power type

Figure 5.16: Correct answers to cons of a power type

There are a couple of possible reasons for this sudden shift in thedata trends compared to the previous two sections, which showedpromising results. First, the answers to the questionnaire in this section

41

5.2. Knowledge Test Results

were in text form. Meaning that the user had to read a segment of textwhile playing for each type of power to learn the pros and cons. Usersare unlikely to read anything that they don’t have to and since thistext didn’t contain vital information it is very likely that they couldhave given up on reading after the first sentence and hence not learnedthe information. Another reason is that users could have misinter-preted questions or answers on the questionnaire as some users askedfor clarification on certain items. It is possible that some users hadsome questions about items but didn’t ask which could have thrownoff their answers.

In summary, improvement was shown in the general understandingof how power sources operate and in the understanding of the originsof fuel for each power source. Even though the average user improvedin the pros and cons section as shown in Figure 5.1, a closer look at thedata shows no conclusive indications one way or another if there wasan improvement in the understanding of pros and cons or not. Whenlooking at the data with the pros and cons data removed, it can beseen from the improvement in the first two sections that a majorityof users were able to walk away having learned a few facts about theorigins of power and the operation of power plant.

42

Chapter 6

Conclusion

“The Source”, an educational tablet application, was designed toshow the general workings of different sources of power. Along withthis goal, the application should give insight as to what fuels eachtype of power. The game was created for these tasks because mostpeople use power in some form or another and it is a good idea forpeople to have some understanding of where their power comes from.“The Source” was also designed with the intention of providing theuser with a pleasant playing experience. Positive playing experienceis important in order to keep users interested and thereby help themabsorb information.

From the data collected from the usability test it can be said thatusers had a pleasant playing experience. The data to support thisclaim is discussed in the “Playing Experience” section. One major issuethat was revealed was that items within the game were too expensive,causing too much of a financial strain on users. This strain is shownin Figures 5.1, 5.2 and 5.3. This financial burden causes users to onlypersue certain paths in the game, and this linearity should not occur.Users should be able to experience multiple paths.

From the data collected in the knowledge test we can see that allareas in the knowledge section received a positve average increase inknowledge per question, which is demonstrated in 5.1. Users did wellin the first two sections but then fell off in the pros and cons. Althoughsome of the numbers are small the data still shows that the averageperson learned from their playing experience.

The usability test allowed users to express their playing experienceand thoughts on the game. From users responses, in the future thecost of items within the game should be lowered to lessen the financialstrain on users. This alteration will also open more choices for usersto take while playing, allowing for more unique games every time theuser plays. The knowledge test heavily suggests that a better way to

43

Chapter 6. Conclusion

show the pros and cons of each power source should be utilized. Atthe moment the information is shown in the form of text, and fromthe results of the knowledge test it can be seen that the users are notabsorbing the information. Given that a new method needs to be usedto display the information, it is possible that the pros and cons could bemore closely worked into the innter workings of the game. An exampleof this type of modification would be like when rivers are dammed thenthe environmental consequences are displayed to the user rather thanjust calculated behind the scenes.While there are small modificationsthat must be made, overall it can be said that “The Source” achievedboth of its main goals, with respect to both usability and education.

44

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